Events

Current and Upcoming

Drawn Together: Trailblazing American Women Artists in Belle Époque Paris

October 12, 2026 - October 13, 2026
3:00 AM - 6:30 AM
Event time is displayed in your time zone.
Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc, Reid Hall | 4, rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris

Proof of registration, via a QR code on your phone or on paper, will be required to enter Reid Hall. Entry will be refused to those who are not registered. Please note that access will not be permitted 15 minutes after the start of the event.

This event will be held in English.

Organized by the Columbia Global Paris Center and Tara Keny-Boccacci, with participating curators from the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, the Art Museum and College of Creative Arts at West Virginia University, the Delaware White-line Woodcut Guild, the Evaul Studios, Keny Galleries, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Musée d’Orsay

With the generous support of Sara McNealey and Liberty Atlantic.

To be notified of upcoming Paris Global Center events, we invite you to sign up for our monthly newsletter.

This symposium will be livestreamed. Register here to access the Zoom for Day 1 (Monday, October 12). Register here to access the Zoom for Day 2 (Tuesday, October 13).

Drawn Together explores a circle of influential American women artists who worked on paper in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century. At the center of this transatlantic network were Maud Hunt SquireEthel Mars, and Edna Boies Hopkins.

As members of the American Woman's Art Association in the Latin Quarter, these artists exhibited on both sides of the Atlantic and attracted significant critical attention. Their artistic achievements, professional networks, and mentorship influenced  other artists in Paris, including Margaret PattersonAda GilmoreBlanche LazzellMildred McMillen, and Juliette NicholsAlice Schille was another influential member of the Association working on paper who exhibited alongside these women in both Paris and Provincetown.

With the outbreak of the First World War, the artistic, personal, and intellectual relationships they had cultivated in Paris found new expression in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Between 1915 and 1920, members of this circle played a pivotal role in the formation of the Provincetown Printers, one of the most celebrated printmaking collectives in early twentieth-century America.

By bringing their intertwined lives and creative legacies into focus, this symposium offers a rare opportunity to explore a vibrant chapter of transatlantic cultural history.

Program

Monday, October 12

09h00 Welcome Coffee

09h30 – 12h30 New York to Paris: Mapping Friendships, Studies, and Artistic Exchange

Setting the Scene: Opening Remarks by Brunhilde Biebuyck and Tara Keny-Boccacci

Institutions and Artistic Networks

  • From the Art Students League in New York to the American Girls Art Club in Paris:  Opening Wide the Doors for American Women Artists 

    J. Bernard Schulz

  • The Girls' Art Club and the American Woman's Art Association

    Brunhilde Biebuyck

  • The Paris School (Video Presentation)

    William H. Robinson

Individual Artistic Journeys

  • “Full of Panache”: Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squire

    Tara Keny-Boccacci

  • Edna Boies Hopkins: Avant-Garde Printmaker, Modern Woman

    James M. Keny

  • Blanche Lazzell in Paris: “At Last I Am In My Element”

    Mary Louise Soldo Schulz

  • Ada Gilmore and Mildred McMillen

    William Evaul

Followed by discussion and questions.

14h30 Film Screening: Schille, introduced by Marie Doezema

Directed by Irene Kim Chin and Kurt Vincent, this Emmy nominated, thirty-minute documentary distributed by PBS explores the life and work of twentieth-century American watercolorist Alice Schille, a member of the Girls' Art Club. The film examines her career, her rediscovery, and the process of curating a retrospective of her work.

Followed by discussion and questions.

Tuesday, October 13

10h00–12h30 From Studios and Exhibitions to Museum Collections

  • Collecting American Women Printmakers in Early Twentieth-Century Paris: Jacques Doucet, Clément-Janin, and the Acquisition Strategies of the Bibliothèque d'art et d'archéologie

    Eléa Sicre

  • Collections in Context: Provincetown Prints at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

    Meghan Melvin

  • Stewarding the Legacy of Women Artists at West Virginia University

    Robert Bridges

  • Contemporary Expressions of the Provincetown Print

    Fred Dylla

  • The Musée d'Orsay's Recent Maud Squire Acquisitions and Transatlantic Exhibitions (Video Presentation)

    Caroline Corbeau-Parsons

The symposium will conclude with an evening event on Tuesday, October 13.

Speakers

  • Brunhilde Biebuyck
    Director, Reid Hall and Columbia Global Paris Center
  • Robert Bridges
    Curator, Art Museum of West Virginia University
  • Caroline Corbeau-Parsons
    Curator of Graphic Arts, Musée d'Orsay
  • Marie Doezema
    Associate Director of Special Projects, Columbia Global Paris Center
  • Fred Dylla
    Physicist, artist, art and science historian, founder of the Delaware White-line Woodcut Guild, Lewes, Delaware.
  • William Evaul
    Artist and collector, Evaul Studios, North Truro, Massachusetts
  • James M. Keny
    Art historian and gallerist, Keny Galleries, Columbus, Ohio
  • Tara Keny-Boccacci
    Art historian and independent curator; former Modern Women’s Fund Curatorial Assistant, Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • Meghan Melvin
    Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  • William H. Robinson
    Author, Royal Academy of Arts; former Paul J. and Edith Ingalls Vignos Jr. Senior Curator of Modern European Art, Cleveland Museum of Art
  • J. Bernard Schulz
    Professor Emeritus of Art History, College of Creative Arts, West Virginia University
  • Eléa Sicre
    Art historian and Prints Collections Officer, Institut national d'histoire de l'art
  • Mary Louise Soldo Schulz
    Professor Emerita, Honors College, West Virginia University
  • Diane J. Squire
    DJSquire Designs; great-niece of Maud Squire

This event will take place in Reid Hall’s Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc, built in 1912 and extensively renovated in 2023 thanks to the generous support of Judith Ginsberg and Paul LeClerc.

Reid Hall, the Columbia Global Paris Center, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination are not responsible for the views and opinions expressed by their speakers and guests.